Pandan and Coconut Checkerboard Brownies

Along with my bake along buddies, Joyce and  Zoe, we are baking coconut checkerboard brownies. I've not done anything checkerboard ..not on cookies, cakes or brownies as i always have the impression that they are a little complicated to make..bake, cut and assemble but always look impressive to me. When this recipe was picked by Joyce, the first thing i did was to look at the number of whisks next to the title. One whisk means easy to make , this recipe indicates 2 whisks..ok, at least not so bad . The original recipe has a chocolate brownies at the bottom and alternating squares of coconut brownies and chocolate brownies at the top. I suddenly have a tempt to make a pandan flavoured one instead of a chocolate brownie... pandan and coconut ..it should be nice i thought.

Hmm..not too bad..quite nice..at least nobody said that it's not nice :) but i think it can be better with some improved version but at this time i dont know what else can be done to make it even tastier. I love the flaked coconut in the white coconut brownie and also on the toppings and the green brownie has a nice flavour enriched by the pandan paste that i used. Actually eating this brownie is like eating those square coconut candies which we can find here, normally comes in pink but this is a little softer. I did however encountered some problems during the baking process..my MISTAKE.. i made the wrong conversion of butter from tablespoons to gram..a lot more butter that i used here resulted in my cake was 'floating' in oil.. after 30 mins into the oven! So much oil! I was staring in horror..it shouldnt be..I didnt even sense anything wrong when mixing the batter..i took the pan out and pour away all the oil and continue baking till complete. Glad i was able to rescue the cake, relieved that the checkerboard pattern did not get distorted and  was actually quite surprised that the cake wasnt that oily as i thought it should have been due to my mistake. So i shall be putting down the correct conversion in the recipe here but if you want to try this, please try at your own risk!! :-D

Recipe ( from Bon appetit Desserts page 589 ) with changes
i made this in a 6"X6" square pan
Coconut Batter
3.5oz sweetened flaked coconut
1/8 cup powdered sugar
1/8 cup whipping cream
1 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
half an egg
pinch of salt

Pandan Batter
45gm butter
1.5oz white chocolate chips
1 egg
2-2.5 tsps pandan paste ( you can put less if you want )
60gm castor sugar
48gm plain flour
1/8 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

Method:
Coconut Batter
Measure 1/3 cup flaked coconut , set aside. Place remaining coconut and sugar in a processor, finely chop. Add whipping cream and cream cheese to processor and blend well. Add egg and salt then, blend well, stopping occasionally to scrape down sides of bowl. Cover and refrigerate until very firm, about 3 hours.

Pandan Batter
Butter a 6"x6" baking pan. Melt butter with chocolate chips in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring until smooth. Pour into medium bowl and cool to lukewarm. Whisk in eggs and pandan paste. Whisk sugar, flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl and sift over pandan mixture. Mix until blended and smooth. Spread 1/2 plus 1/4cup  of pandan batter in prepared pan and cover pan tightly with aluminium foil and keep in the fridge. Refrigerate remaining batter until very firm, about 3 hours.

Position rack in center and preheat oven to 325F/162C. Alternate 1 tbsp remaining pandan batter and 1 tbsp coconut batter over pandan layer, filling pan completely. Sprinkle reserved flaked coconut over white coconut mounds, press gently to adhere and cover pan tightly with foil. Bake 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake until tester inserted in center of pandan and coconut mounds comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool brownies completely in pan.

For our next round, we will be making chicken pies as the theme. Linky will be opened from July26th to August01, 2012, all are welcomed to join us and dont forget to link your post back to one of the host's blog ( me, Joyce or Zoe ). Oh, kindly link new or recent posts only. Thank you!!





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